NORTHAMPTON — All 240 students at R.K. Finn Ryan Road School celebrated the summer solstice Friday by forming themselves into a miniature sun.

Parents watched as the school staff arranged the children into nine lines, representing rays of the sun, which rotated around kindergartners in the middle.

While it might just seem to be a way for the students to welcome summer and blow off steam, Principal Margaret Riddle said there’s also an educational aspect to it. “The seasons change because of the tilt of the earth on its axis as it travels around the sun,” she said. “It’s an important thing for kids to learn in science, but it’s really hard to understand.”

The school holds a similar celebration for the start of the other seasons.